This is not an esoteric line of inquiry.
The United States is not broke.
We should laugh at the delusion that we are.
The potential for abundance is everywhere around us, but it stagnates for sheer lack of funding.
For Hire: Lobbyists or the 99 percent
Corporations have vast resources to pour into Congress.
Low or no taxes are paid thanks to rules they lobbied into law.
Some of the biggest companies in the United States have been firing workers and in some cases lobbying for rules that depress wages at the very time that jobs are needed, pay is low, and the federal budget suffers from a lack of revenue.
30 brand-name companies paid a federal income tax rate of minus 6.7 percent on $160 billion of profit from 2008 through 2010 compared to a going corporate tax rate of 35 percent. All but one of those 30 companies reported lobbying expenses in Washington.
A Christmas Message From America’s Rich
“It seems America’s bankers are tired of all the abuse. They’ve decided to speak out.
“True, they’re doing it from behind the ropeline, in front of friendly crowds at industry conferences and country clubs, meaning they don’t have to look the rest of America in the eye when they call us all imbeciles and complain that they shouldn’t have to apologize for being so successful.”
The New Propaganda All Over Again.
“Let them eat cake.
“I want a reality show where the Billionaires come on every day and talk about their troubles.
“It could be like the old TV show ‘Queen for a Day’. The 1 Percenter with the biggest sob story wins a brand new dishwasher.” —Jon Taplin
Neal Stephenson warns about ‘Innovation Starvation’
“You’re the ones who’ve been slacking off!”
The imperative to develop new technologies and implement them on a heroic scale no longer seems like the childish preoccupation of a few nerds with slide rules.
It’s the only way for the human race to escape from its current predicaments.
Too bad we’ve forgotten how to do it.
“Hey, everybody, that’s our tree, not theirs.”
